Fox Cuts 9 Episodes from ‘Lie to Me’ Season 3; Show Not Canceled (Yet)

Fans of Lie to Mewill be disappointed to learn that Fox has decided not to pick up a back-nine order for the show – limiting the third season to only 13 episodes.

Fox made the decision to not order more episodes of the well-received investigation procedural, which stars Academy Award-nominee Tim Roth, due to the incoming show The Chicago Code (yet another police procedural).

However, there is a (slight) silver lining to Fox’s decision. According to Deadline, the move to not pick up the back-nine of Lie to Me does not mean that the network is canceling the series – at least, not yet. It also doesn’t mean that Lie to Me to me is certain to get a fourth season – Fox won’t make that decision until spring.

Realistically, Lie To Me‘s chances of getting picked back up in the spring don’t seem that good. Despite a strong first season, the show lost viewers in its second year, and hasn’t started out 2010 with much energy.

According to TV by the Numbers, Lie to Me pulled in a Live+SD rating of 1.9 and a Live+7 rating of only 2.5 for the week of November 15th-21st. In case you were wondering, Live+SD represents ratings from the viewers who watched on the original air date and Live+7 represents the number of viewers who watched on the original air date plus the viewers who caught the show on DVR (in the seven days following the original air date).

I’m not a huge fan of Lie to Me, but I’m sure there are devotees of the show among our loyal readers. Should Fox pick up the show in the spring, or has Lie to Me lost its spark?